Wired intercoms for communicating between crew members of vehicles are well known. U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,062 B1 for a COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACE ADAPTER issued to Davidson et al. on Apr. 24, 2001, discloses an interface between a vehicle intercom and a radio transceiver that allows a crew member who has disconnected from the wired intercom to access the wired intercom from outside the vehicle via radio transceiver through the communications interface adapter to the intercom.
While wired communications devices are less susceptible to interference, wireless communications enable greater freedom of action.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an vehicle crew communication system that is entirely wireless, resistant to interference, allows a plurality of disembarked crew members to communicate over the intercom at operationally useful distances, allows wireless communication within the vehicle, and avoids aggregating adapters to legacy systems. It is further desirable to have a vehicle crew communication system that permits intercom headset access to one or more radios for longer range communications.